My current specs- AMD 64 3200+Venice Leadtek 6800GT at 420/1.14 Corsair Value Select 2x512mb Biostar N4SLI-A9 motherboard Audigy 2ZS sound card Hitachi Deskstar 80gig hard drive CD/DVD with RW NEC disk drive Termaltake Soprano with 430w psu I was thinking about getting a new mobo since mine is horrible and I can't do any overclocking with it and a 3800X2 to go with it and overclock that to somewhere in the 2.4-2.6 range and maybe get a better GPU cooler for some more overclocking Another idea is to just get the better mobo keep my currrent CPU overclock that and get a 7800GT or GTX so basically should I get a better CPU or just get a new video card either way I would like to get a new mobo unless I can utilize my curent one better any help and suggestions would be appreciated and any recomendations on some video cards and mobos -Payne
Depends what you do mostly. If you spend a ton of time gaming, go with the video card. If it's some time gaming but a lot more general-use (or really anything else that's not GPU-reliant), the X2 is great.
what about my current cpu being a bottleneck, and what kind of clock should I be expecting with my current CPU and RAM with an aftermarket cooler?
the cpu will probably be a bottle neck with the 7800, eps if you go towards dual 7800's. and you might get a little increase in clock speeds with new cooling. water cooling would provide the biggest jump. i would say do what firehead said and ask yourself those questions. edit: someone correct me if i am wrong
which would proveide the greater performance boost overall, do I need to get better ram to suficiently overclock either my current CPU or a 3800X2
also what is your budget, if the skys the limit: get some more ram, 2 gigs of it to be exact; crucial, corsair, or another gig of the stuff you have now, a new mobo made by dfi or asus, a 7800gtx or gt and a 3800 x2 or a similar cpu. could you tell us how much money you have to spend. in my opinion go with the x2 because the cpu you have now is somewhat of a bottleneck. i have the 3200 winchester and it would be the first to go if i had the money to updgrade.
somewhere between $550 and $650 I may have a little more also would it be worth it to upgrade my current card, next time I would be able to upgrade my system would be around august of next year is my CPU bottlenecking my current card? would a 7800GT or a 7800GTX
i will get back to you after school, on some of the things you might be able to improve. edit: search around for a cheap mobo, get another gig of the ram you have, and 3800gt, then if you can get a 6800gt or 7800gt later or if you have the money. a dfi mobo would be great.
thx for the reply I don't want to get a cheap mobo since the one I already have is a cheap one and thats the problem don't know about the ram since I have two 512s and getting another two won't really help since it dosen't run in dual channel and I was looking to either upgrade my processor or get a 7800GT or GTX
Yea i think I will just go with the 3800X2 and a new DFI or ASUS motherboard, and I think I will get aftermarket coolers for my video card and my CPU
